


There You Go Again (Making Me Love You)

by charleybradburies



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (maybeish), Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Het Relationship, Co-workers, Communication Failure, Community: 1_million_words, Community: fan_flashworks, Crossing Parallels, Developing Relationship, Dreams and Nightmares, Drinking, Drinking to Cope, Espionage, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Sex, F/M, Idiots in Love, Injury Recovery, Literal Sleeping Together, Mental Health Issues, Missing Scene, Misunderstandings, Multiple Orgasms, Nightmares, Non-Explicit Sex, Not Actually Unrequited Love, One Shot, One True Pairing, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Parallels, Psychological Trauma, Resolved Sexual Tension, Season/Series 01 Spoilers, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Secrets, Series Spoilers, Sleep, Sleeping Together, Slow Burn, Sorry Not Sorry, Spies & Secret Agents, Spoilers, Strategic Scientific Reserve, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Time Skips, Trauma, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unrequited Love, Veterans, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 08:03:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6365908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Like many traumatized soldiers, Daniel has trouble sleeping. Now, it's just for different reasons.</p><p>Spoilers through the season two finale, including for a number of season one episodes.<br/>Formatted as snippets with time stamps and locations, all basically on different occasions. <i>(A couple are sequences of scenes, and that's where the location doesn't change. It should be relatively straightforward but let me know if it doesn't make sense.)</i><br/>Title from Maroon 5's 'One More Night.'. Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	There You Go Again (Making Me Love You)

**Author's Note:**

> For Fan Flashworks Challenge No. 149: One Night Only.

During the first stages of sleep, before one is truly asleep but is between levels of consciousness, it’s common to experience a feeling akin to falling.

People who have experienced traumas such as those common in war are more likely than the average person to face these situations, as well as more likely to suffer nightmares and night terrors. 

Nightmares and night terrors are most often reminiscent of events which the survivor has experienced previously.

+

**11:17 PM - Daniel's Residence, Brooklyn, New York City, New York**

_“Aren’t you coming, Daniel?”_

_“I knew Howard Stark during the war...he’s not a traitor.”_

_“I can handle whatever these adolescents throw at me.”_

It’s possible that every single interaction he and Peggy have ever had gets the chance to run through his head before he has half a hope of actually falling asleep. He’d thought himself a better investigator than many of his colleagues, and he’d paid even more attention to Peggy than he should have to begin with, and still failed to notice that she was committing treason right in their very office. Krzeminski had been right in telling him to give it up, if not for the reasons he’d thought.

Daniel can’t convince himself she'd known what would come of Krzeminski, though. He can’t help feeling like there’s something missing, like there has to be a way for her to be in the right. But he knows better, doesn’t he? His gut instinct was good - but maybe when it came down to it, he was just as blind as any other man in love. 

A red, white, and blue shield. An aluminum crutch. The ritziest _everything_ on the East Coast. 

One of them was not like the others.

One of them needs to down over half a bottle of brandy just to fall asleep without his mind’s eye showing him an image of Peggy Carter sneering at him in an SSR interrogation room.

++

**8:54 AM- SSR New York, Brooklyn, New York City, New York**

“How come you’re the one who looks like he hasn’t slept in a week?”

_Because, Peggy, I can’t get you out of my goddamned head._

He comes up with something clever, but he still feels disappointed that she doesn't call him out for lying, which honestly makes about as much damn sense as she does. 

Daniel's almost tired enough not to think too much of it.

+

**9:22 AM**

It’s when he’s had the dream featuring Howard Stark for the third night in a row that he stops holding onto the evidence, and takes it to Dooley instead. 

He does manage to carefully avoid mentioning that he's been fantasising about their co-worker for months.

“I knew that everyone else would jump on the chance to discredit her, Chief. I needed to be entirely sure of what the evidence amounted to before I said anything. She’s one of the best agents here -”

“Who only remains here because of who she’s slept with, Sousa, right? And now is apparently committing treason because of that guy’s successor, too. You gotta defense for that? High-and-mighty Carter pulling her skirt up, for this guy?”

Daniel's not confident that the fiery blush creeping through his body isn't actually visible, but with the audience...even the slightest unsteadiness on his part might make this even worse than it already is.

“Well, considering they worked together during the war, I imagine he’s one of the few men she knows who actually shows her an ounce of respect.”

“Sousa, if that were a deciding factor, she’d be crawling into your bed. Hate to break it to ya, but I have a feeling that ain’t the story.”

++

**1:43 AM - Daniel’s Residence, Los Angeles, California**

_“I think you’re in love with her.”_

It’s ironic, really, that people conjure the image of falling when they talk about love. Now, that’s practically all he sees. _Peggy falling._

Should it feel worse that he almost lost someone who’s _never been his_ than that he’s now lost the chance to move on from her? 

Probably not.

But _does_ it?

_Invariably._

Because he _was_ in love with her...and in running he’d hurt even _more_ people than himself. 

There was now a trail of people he’d left behind, and he still couldn’t help feeling like losing his previously-impending marriage to Violet was worth the fact that she’d saved Peggy. If none of them had known a nurse, and she’d still refused to go to a hospital...he wouldn’t be imagining her dying, he’d have been there. He’d have had to hold her as she bled out. He feels like he needs a whole ‘nother bottle of whiskey just for thinking about it, as if the recurring image of her dropping down onto those spikes wasn’t terrifying enough.

Coffee. That’s what he needs. Some strong, hot coffee.

Okay, some _Irish_ coffee.

++

**8:33 AM - Jarvis Residence, Los Angeles, California**

“You look terrible.”

“Says the woman with the rebar hole through her abdomen.”

Not that she was even capable of looking terrible, but the point remained. 

If he could remember what the point was to begin with, anyway.

“You didn’t call me here to ask about my emotional state.”

She hesitates, legitimate concern flickering in her indignant expression, and Daniel curses himself for noticing. 

“Right.”

++

**11:29 PM - Daniel’s Residence, Los Angeles, California**

Peggy smells like peaches and her skin tastes like salt, and for the most part it’s smooth - aside from the numerous scars (and those, Daniel takes even more time on, being just forceful enough not to tickle each time he kisses her). 

She’s both greedy and sensitive, and it’s difficult to get her to stay in the same spot for more than a second or two, but once he _does_ pin her down she’s wet enough to be ready for him without delay, with both of them on their sides so they can be close without either having to lean upon the other and her hands tangled in his hair like she's afraid of letting go. 

**2:15AM**

When Peggy comes for the final time before she falls asleep - the third time that night, because she was full of energy and lust and love and Daniel certainly wasn’t going to deny her _that_ \- she moans his name into his mouth and collapses back down to the bed, one hand still tethered to his hair. Daniel sneaks his lips down her neck and kisses the shape of an upside-down heart around her shoulders and breasts, before settling in next to her. 

**7:30AM**

He makes half an attempt to get Peggy up, too, but she only goes from grumbling to growling and he figures he’ll just leave her with a kiss and a note. She is _actually_ on vacation, after all...and it’s not like she’d gotten that much sleep. 

Not that he’d gotten any more than she had, but _Daniel_ had an office to run. 

And maybe, just maybe, a woman who’d still be here at his place tonight to welcome him home.

_"Good point."_


End file.
